The stripes were found in a different order in the early (pre-independence)
days.
James Dignan, 14 May 1996

The oldest known reference to the use of the three colours (green,
white and orange) as a nationalist emblem dates from September 1830 when
tricolour cockades were worn at a meeting held to celebrate the French
revolution of that year - a revolution which restored the use of the French
tricolour. The colours were also used in the same period for rosettes and
badges, and on the banners of trade guilds. There is also one reference
to the use of a flag 'striped with orange and green alternately'. However,
the earliest attested use of a tricolour flag was in 1848 when it
was adopted by the Young Ireland movement under the influence of another
French revolution. Speeches made at that time by the Young Ireland leader Thomas
Francis Meagher suggest that it was regarded as an innovation and not as the
revival of an older flag.Vincent Morley, 8 January 1997

The Irish television channel RTÉ 1 included the
following flag-related item on its main news programme last night.

A historian named Dermot Power has established that the tricolour was
publicly unveiled by Thomas Francis Meagher, a leader of the Young Ireland
movement, at a meeting in his native city of Waterford on 7 March 1848 -
exactly 150 years ago today. The report showed the large second-floor window
from which he addressed a crowd in the street below and at which the flag
was displayed.

This discovery pushes back the history of the flag by five weeks: it had
previously been thought that it was first displayed by Meagher at a meeting
held in Dublin on 15 April 1848. More importantly, the television report
stated that Meagher informed the Waterford meeting that the flag was being
shown for the first time. No such claim was made at the later Dublin meeting,
an omission which had led to speculation that the flag might have been in use
for some time before 1848. This possibility now appears to have been excluded.Vincent Morley, 9 March 1998

The use of the Irish tricolour flag in the period 1922-39 was almost entirely confined to
the territory of the Irish Free State. To many, perhaps to most, Irish people it was
still 'the Sinn Fein Flag'. From Hayes-McCoy (1979), A History of Irish Flags from Earliest Times

It was used unofficially by the government in the Irish Free State, but not with the
intention that it should become the national flag:

"The government in Ireland have taken over the so called Free State Flag in order to
forestall its use by republican element and avoid legislative regulation, to leave
them free to adopt a more suitable emblem later."

[PRO document DO 117/100 written in 1928]

In the event the tricolour was adopted as the national flag, but not until 1937.
David Prothero, 1 February 2001

An official document
(115 kbyte PDF file) describing the protocol to be observed when displaying the Irish national flag gives
Pantone colours for green 347, and orange 151.Dean McGee, 18 October 2001

This translate to browser safe RGB as:
PMS 151 RGB:255-102-0 (#FF6600)
PMS 347 RGB:0-153-102 (#009966)
(Note: conversion from PMS to RGB depends so much on software and monitor settings, parameters and preferences that almost always such
conversion is *not* a loss in color detail.)António Martins-Tuválkin, 18 October 2001

Here is the result, with the flag from the top of the page for comparison:

image by António Martins-Tuválkin

image by Vincent Morley

In spite of it being described on an
official website, I am not quite satisfied with the green colour. I think
it it looks way too pale, in comparison with other green flags we have. Maybe (just maybe) 0-153-51 would do a bit better?Željko
Heimer, 21 October 2001

It certainly would. Apart from its paleness, 0-153-102 is also too far towards the blue end of the spectrum.
0-153-51 looks fine on my monitor, but so does 0-153-0.Vincent Morley, 21 October 2001

The protocol manual for the London 2012
Olympics (Flags and Anthems Manual
London 2012) provides recommendations for national flag designs. Each NOC
was sent an image of the flag, including the PMS shades, for their approval by
LOCOG. Once this was obtained, LOCOG produced a 60 x 90 cm version of the flag
for further approval. So, while these specs may not be the official, government,
version of each flag, they are certainly what the NOC believed the flag to be.
For Ireland: PMS 347 green, 151 orange. The vertical flag is simply the
horizontal version turned 90 degrees clockwise.Ian Sumner, 11
October 2012

My question is all about the colours or more specifically the third colour on
the flag. The Irish Flag is green, white and ____. However, my father was born
in 1915 and spent his formative years growing up in Eire in its formative years
and described the colours as green white and gold. From personal recollection
the flag I remember was gold. I especially remember the flag outside Colbert
station in Limerick with a CIE logo in the middle. Though emblems within the
flag are now frowned upon. The only place where I could see a justification for
my belief was a friend's book of national team colours where at some point in
the 80s it shows the Republic Of Ireland's strip going from green white and gold
to green white and orange. More than anything else though when did it change?Kevin Bourke, 30 August 2012

According to G.A.Hayes-McCoy in ‘A History of Irish Flags from the Earliest
Times’ (Academy Press, Dublin, 1979) the third colour was sometimes orange,
sometimes yellow and sometimes gold, with orange not becoming the predominant
colour until it was adopted by the Defence Forces of the Irish Free State in
1923; “army usage influenced the Irish public and the orange stripe ousted the
yellow in the popular use of colours throughout the country.” Even so the third
colour was still being desribed as yellow in 1934, ‘National Flags’ by E.H.
Baxter, and occasionally yellow in 1939, ‘Flags of the World’ by
V.Wheeler-Holohan, who wrote that “the green is for Ireland and the white and
orange (or yellow) are the Papal Colours.”David Prothero, 1
September 2012

Officially (i.e. in the national constitution) the colours of the Irish flag
have no meaning. However many urban legends have arisen
to account for the colours. Some are presented below:

From
this webpage: The Green is for the Catholics, the Orange for the Protestants
and the white for the peace between them. Every once in a while when you see a
green-white-yellow (instead of orange) flag around the country here, that person
is basically disagreeing. Heather, 27 April 2003 [Ed. note: green-white-yellow/gold are the
colours of Offaly.]

From a
Government
webpage: The green represents the older Gaelic tradition while the orange
represents the supporters of William of Orange. The white in the centre
signifies a lasting truce between the 'Orange' and the 'Green'.

There are a
few reason why Green is associated with Catholics in Ireland - Coming from the
long struggle for independence. Around the time of the American Revolution,
there was anxiety in the ruling classes of Europe; fearing that the ideas of
liberty and so on would spread to their own population and spark some kind of
revolt. This was very true in Ireland - where resentment to British rule was
very strong. Green had always been associated with Ireland as a nation, and with
the revolutionary groups within it. For a while around 1776, the wearing of the
colour green was actually barred by the authorities, giving rise to the song of
the same name.

Green was the colour of sympathy for independence around this
time, and has pretty much stuck with that until this day. The modern flag
arrives much later, as a compromise flag - Which ironically, today, is used as a
symbol for (complete) independence.Jim McBrearty, 29 April 2003

The orange colour is associated with the Protestants in Ulster and that
derived from William III (of the House of Orange and originally the Stadtholder
of the Netherlands) who defeated the Irish Catholics at the Battle of the Boyne
somewhere in the late 1600s. It was included in the Irish flag in an attempt to
reconcile the Protestants with the Irish independence movement.A.P. Burgers, 26 May 2004

The traditional arms of Ireland have the harp on a blue field. A
gold harp on a green field (as opposed to the blue of the arms) was
the traditional Green Flag of Ireland before
the tricolour became popular.Roy Stilling, 30 May 1996

The evolution of the heraldic harp can be traced in Irish coinage.
The harp first appeared on coins in the reign of Henry VIII. From
the reign of Henry VIII to that of Elizabeth I the fore-pillar of the
harp was plain. In the coinages of James I and Charles I it had an
animal head. The naked female torso first appeared in the coinage
of Charles II (appropriately enough perhaps) and was a permanent
feature from then until 1822 when the Irish currency was abolished.
The harp adopted as the state emblem on the formation of the Irish
Free State is a medieval instrument, the Brian Boru harp, which is
preserved in Trinity College Dublin. Use of this particular harp is
reserved to the state so all private bodies are obliged to use harps
of other designs.Vincent Morley, 27 January 1997

The harp that appears on the presidential standard differs from
that shown on conventional representations of the national arms in
being less ornate, in not being tilted into the playing position
(i.e. it has diagonal rather than vertical strings), and in having
only twelve gold strings rather than a larger number of silver
strings. The field of the presidential standard is also in a darker
shade of blue than the usual field of the national arms, and the
ornamentation on the harp is worked in blue thread of the same shade.Vincent Morley, 1 November 1999

The colour of the strings on Irish harps is not consistent. On the national arms
they are white (silver); on the jack and presidential standard they
are yellow; on the naval pennant, they were white, as appears from
the photograph in Hayes-McCoy (1979), 'A History of Irish flags from
Earliest Times'. These differences reflect the fact that the designs were introduced by independent processes at
different times. The relevant dates are:

For more information, see Séamas Ó Brógáin
(1998), 'The Irish Harp Emblem'. This author writes as follows about the presidential
standard:

"This flag was approved by the Government on 13 February 1945. A number of technical decisions were made at the same time, including
the decision that ... the strings of the harp be yellow (in settlement of the question raised by Edward MacLysaght, who had
insisted that the strings should be white)."Vincent Morley, 2 February 2002

The initial marking at the beginning of the Irish air forces was a roundel of
green-white-orange, later standardized into green-white-orange stripes,
and during 1939-1954 into the shape of the so-called "Celtic boss" in green and
orange (similar to a yin-yang emblem). Sometimes this was placed on a white
square. Since 1954 the tricolour "Celtic boss" has been used. (source: Cochrane
and Elliott, 1998)Željko Heimer, 30 January 2002

Aer Chor na h-Eireann
was established on February 1922 (renamed Oct. 1924).
The 1922-1923 roundel was a classic orange-white-green with rudder stripes. In
1923 it was replaced by wing stripes and rudder stripes. In 1939 a "Celtic boss"
roundel was adopted of two colors. Cochrane
and Elliott, 1998 show the absence of tail insignia as seen also at
this site
(note the roundel on a white plate as reported above) but
this image does show
a fin flash.

"A Mayo traveller is leading a major campaign for a Traveller Flag or symbol for
their community.

"The work which Bernard Sweeney is currently putting all of his time into and
which he is hoping will result in something positive for his community, will be
decided in September when the community will vote around the country for the
acceptance or disregard of a national symbol for travellers.

"A native of Ballinrobe, Bernard has been travelling around the county for the
past number of weeks in the hope of convincing his comrades their community
should have an overall symbol which he is hoping will be a flag.

"The idea has now advanced onto a much broader platform and it has been decided
that a vote should be taken within the community on September 15th next on a
national level. "We decided to organise a vote which will take place in
September in which people will decide on a symbol, a flag, or nothing at all.
The democracy around it is very even handed. It will include travellers all over
Ireland aged 15 and over."

"He himself is 100% for the idea. "There are flags everywhere. There are town,
county, boy scouts, club flags, etc, up to the National flag and it is all part
of one's identity. So we are just saying why not have a flag that represents
travellers. It would identify us as Irish travellers.

"Other ethnic groups around the world all have flags. Personally I think it
would be a mark of respect for travellers who have died over the years. For me,
we would have it on anti-racism days, celebrations as a badge of pride. It is
nothing more than that and will never take away our Irishness."André Coutanche, 8 August 2005